My Felt Doll Cont...

Some of the things I've been up to lately.

Savannah's "new" dresser. We have an old house with tiny rooms, so since Savannah was born we have had shelves in her closet for all of her clothes. It's been messy. We got this old used dresser a long time ago, it was an ugly brown color and I pained it yellow when Nolan was born. "Only a poor man can afford cheap paint" as my grandpa said. Well, it peeled. When I decided to use it for Savannah, I thought I would get the paint off with paint remover, 2 coats later, no deal. I bought myself a black and decker palm sander (best gift ever) it took 2 hours and I was ready to paint.

My go to paints lately have been Minwax polyshades classic black satin and Behr Acrylate white. I put these on all my furniture and the white is amazing for trim and high temp steam radiators.

She picked out the handles from Hobby Lobby. They are awesome, just not the color I was hoping for since we will be painting her room soon. (more drop ceiling work)

I have also been spackling and sanding the ceilings in my living and dining rooms, what a pain (seriously) almost done, then those rooms can finally be painted.

The Felt Doll pattern comes with a bear and Savannah just couldn't wait until I made it. So here she is. I custom made the dress. I had to pin it to the doll as well as glue the slippers to the doll because my children are little monsters. Nolan was already caught ripping out her hair.

This is a quilt I have been working on for a while, it is very challenging for me. The pieces are tiny and for someone who hasn't really had any experience in this area it's complicated. It is the Fancy Forrest Quilt. I have done the Bunnies, and the hedgehogs and I have to finish these owls before I can start anything new because once you stop with these it's hard to pick them back up, you kinda get into a rhythm and its easy to lose the pieces and forget which piece goes to which block.

I have a lot of things I want to do before Christmas so time to get to work.

Organization tips, fall decor and crochet headband

Fall has arrived, the weather here in Jersey has been pretty cool and weather changes bring crochet desires.  

I made Savannah this double strand crochet headband. for the bow, For the headband

Remember that last tutorial? I decided to use the polyshades on this picture frame also. It was brown before.

My fall decor needed a little updating and Michael's was having a great sale so I made this outdoor planter for my front porch. I got the flower pot free, put in a green floral foam block and bought a whole bunch of artificial fall bouquet's and a bag of decorative pumpkins and gourds. The pumpkins and gourds are attached with a thin piece of copper wire. It cost less than $20 to make.

My husband and I have always been big on finding great clearance deals. He got this plant stand on clearance at Lowe's. It always drove me nuts because it was ugly and took up space. I has a glass top with suction cups that hold on the legs, it also had a tall plant light with a pot that fit on top. I gave away the plant light, covered up the table with a piece I made a long time ago and decided to use it to display some pictures in my living room that have never really had a home. This adds a great look to the living room.

If you can't tell I've been going crazy tying to get my house organized and looking a little more updated.

We have 3 closets in our house and this one shown is the biggest of the 3. They are not big enough for a decent shoe rack and don't hold more than 3 winter coats. Old house problems!

Jake found these awesome and strong little shelves at Target for around $17, they were meant for the basement but it fits perfectly in the nook of this closet and It holds the 3 diaper bags I have to have, my shopping totes, the boxes of crafts for the kids, and all my mailing stuff for eBay.

 This is another great organization tip. I keep gift bags that are given to us for birthdays etc... only the ones in great condition (those bags are expensive) and store them in this inexpensive rubbermaid tote. It also holds tissue paper and gift tags.

 Then I hung a large gift bag from a hanger for all the large gift bags and overflow.

I'm in the process of painting my outdated metal front and back doors. It's coming out great, will post again soon, Lord willing.

Electric fireplace makeover

 Jake got this electric fireplace on the side of the road about 2 years ago. What a great find! it was in perfect condition and even works. I'm not too great at the before and after stuff since I spontaneously re-do things. The center part was brass, it was an eye sore and just recently I have been getting better at decorating and figuring out what my style is.

 After:

 I wanted the wood to be dark and a friend told me to use gel stain. Just an FYI it is impossible to find gel stain. I stripped and sanded the wood and after all that work, Jake told me it was a wood veneer and it became so thin after all the work I put into it that the wood probably won't take the stain. I tried an espresso colored oil based stain, and that was just a waste of time.

 Then after going all over town looking for gel stain I found this amazing stuff called PolyShades at Home Depot. It is oil based polyurethane and stain all in one but works like the gel stain in that it covers more than penetrates the wood, but without the mess of having to wipe off excess. I only used 2 coats and it comes in many traditional stain colors and satin or glossy.
 I would say this is the best stuff to use on a wood veneer. You do not have to sand first.
 I used the classic black in Satin and I still got a lot of wood grain showing through.